


Betrayal by Truth

by pinkparasol



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Disturbing Themes, Gen, M/M, relationship only if you squint and tilt your head
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-28
Updated: 2012-09-28
Packaged: 2017-11-15 05:31:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/523692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkparasol/pseuds/pinkparasol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>War brings about changes, many of these changes far from good to all involved...As well as outcomes and choices that would horrify in peaceful times.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Betrayal by Truth

They had been taking on a large amount of heavy fire. Despite their little group, for being only eight mechs strong and cut off from Central Command they were not a proper unit, being nothing more then survivors or known survivors of their original units. All of them having managed to end up in the ‘Dead Zone’ together, where anything living had a chance to die by means that were not the cause of the opposing side. First Aid, in hindsight now, saw such as fitting the normal parameters in logical jumps that their former security director was known for, when he was deciding on a new place to observe and counteract against Shockwave. He just wished he hadn’t found out this by ending up stranded in the area as well.

Especially as he was barely holding a mech he didn’t even know the designation of together, literally, with nothing more then his servos and a few clamps on key seams of the armor. All while trying to keep his helm below the low lip of the small hole within the surface of Cybertron he was using as cover, even as the heat of the various weapons discharging barely two meters above him made his sensors ping and register it. All relay and backup sensors fixated on looking for an enemy while optics and the bulk of his processor remained focused on keeping a spark alive just a little longer. The hope of being able to hand his patients off to a medbay that, though hardly well stocked, would still be enough to make his efforts not be in vain waning with each passing klik and lack of a pause in the chaos around them.

Only to suddenly find himself being yanked away as the spark of his patient guttered out and the brightly painted metal started going cold and grey, and the dubious protection crumbled under a seismic shockwave from some new type of grenade. Fighting back only half as much as he normally would as his processors tried to make sense of the data being flung at it, as the mech he knew was probably not that much bigger or even the same size as him managed to drag him by an arm servo through the wreckage and gun fire at a speed First Aid hadn’t thought possible when he was partially dead weight in shock at the time. Only finally able to sort it all out as the din of the fighting became muffled so that his audio units had to strain to still hear it, and the sudden rumble as the rest of his group that was alive seemed to surge around a small grime covered mech that had lead them here.

A fuzzy cpu of giddiness almost making him miss that, despite the optics normally being pale in all of his memory files of the mech, the lack of any color in the optics was far from normal. Making him frown a bit behind his mask as his stabilizers attempted to keep his swaying body upright. The sudden lack of anything to focus on to the exclusion of all else making him finally note his own error and warning messages cluttering a far corner of his left optical range. The lack of energy in his system and his hope filled cpu that everything was going to be okay making him calmly note and prioritize his injuries including the slight deterioration of his spark chamber, not enough for spark contamination, but still worrisome if he did not get it entirely replaced. It could wait because the Dead Zone didn’t seem as dead as it had breems ago, as he slid down to sit heavily against a partially crumbled wall and watch as Red Alert with a dented frame and paint so faded Sunstreaker would have personally been offended by it, due to his pride and vanity mixing with his odd loyalty to his fellow frame types, jumping and ordering in that paranoid fashion that Aid had spent the first five vorns of his life knowing as a constant presence. Much like having Ratchet cursing his patients for being idiots was constant and a sign everything was alright.

First Aid wasn’t certain when he fell into recharge; just that everything was blissfully silent and fewer error messages were appearing in front of him as his self repair system had taken the time to get some work done. Optics blinking away the major worry of the corroded spark chamber he couldn’t do anything about until he could find Ratchet and have the CMO try and ‘find’ a new one for him. His sensors taking in and accounting for the remaining mechs in his group all in deep recharge as their self repair systems worked, and the familiar click of Red Alert pacing and checking his security systems that he hadn’t heard in a long time. A comfort, which even now, his brothers had never really understood, except for Streetwise who had practically been raised in both the security room and the meeting room of the tactical unit. Having had Medbay a short walk down a hallway away from the hub of the entire security network of Iacon had made Red Alert a familiar presence as well for First Aid when he and his brothers had been brought onlined and trained separately and together.

A nagging sub routine however had him suddenly noticing little things that didn’t add up and dispelled most of the comfort, as his medical scans moved over the once red and white mech. He was moving carefully like a joint was out of place but he couldn’t detect one being so, and energy levels were low in a way that would have been alarming if not for the fact he couldn’t find any ill effects of such on the former security director. Even as the now white optics, which somewhat scared the junior medic who kept recalling memory files that showed that though pale they had still been a definite shade of blue, turned towards him in that absentminded acknowledgement that showed Red Alert knew he was awake but was still preoccupied with his security routines.

“You left.”

It was a blunt statement and wholly out of character for the quiet medic who would normally let his brothers do the talking. Yet, in his sluggish state it seemed natural to state such, a fact that couldn’t be dodged or excused away easily on the sudden disappearance.

“I only said I would do all I can to keep the security of the Autobots from being overthrown by Shockwave.”

_I don’t lie_

It didn’t need to be voiced by Red Alert, as it was a silent fact anyone who had to share a base with the mech had learned early on. Never saying anything more then what was needed to be said, and always in a blunt and matter of fact way that had Ratchet on more then one occasion shooting a dark glare at the security mech when he had not thought to soften the verbal blow around First Aid and his brothers. Something that had actually been refreshing in a way. Red Alert didn’t coddle or hide something because it was gruesome or horrifying, he in his own way had helped the young gestalt survive as long as they had by not letting them be as naïve as Ratchet and everyone else wanted them to be in a war zone.

“Are you coming back and staying this time?”

Those now eerie optics once more trained on his own behind the visor he used to protect them. It made him realize he was more then likely not going to like the answer when he figured out in its entirety. 

“I think I am. This time.”

First Aid drifted into stasis with a worry in his spark because Red Alert may not lie, but he would sometimes be vague enough that the entire truth wouldn’t be realized until it was too late.

When he came back online to the familiar cracked and optic searing orange colored ceiling of the current medbay of the Autobot’s main camp he almost didn’t recall the last thing said to him by Red Alert; until Ratchet looked him in the optics and he suddenly _knew_ what had happened.

It took three consecutive cycles of silently curled up to one or more of his brothers for it to sink in fully, and an entire Orn before he visited the room where ‘donations’ were being kept. Staring down at the grey figure he oddly couldn’t find himself to feel sadden or even angry at the empty frame of the mech.

After all Red Alert never lied, and he had come back with them. He was never going to leave again, and for First Aid he would always be there. As his spark burned within its newly acquired spark casing.


End file.
